Karaoke Night
by Witty Eagle Proud Ravenclaw
Summary: Nelson's got the karaoke set up at the Railway Arms, and Sam leaps at the chance to sing a Beatles track to the WDC who's captured his heart. Whether Gene teases him or not, he'll do it. And whether it secretly changes Annie's mind about the DI as well... rated a paranoid 'T' for the crudeness that is Gene Hunt and Ray Carling.


**Karaoke Night**

**Author Note:**** Life on Mars doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the minds of Matthew Graham, Tony Jordan, and Ashley Pharoah. This story includes, among other things, utter embarrassment on Sam's part courtesy of who else, the Gene Genie.**

"..._I said that time may change me, but I can't trace time_." Phyllis finished the song, handing Nelson back the microphone with a weary half-smile.

"Excellent, mon brav." Nelson laughed. "Superb karaoke."

"I needed a break from the desk." Phyllis half-smiled again. "And yes, I am criticising the guv." she finished, devoid of humour, in her classic biting style. Ray and Chris exploded with laughter. Nelson grinned - he knew Sam was tense with Gene, and it didn't surprise him that others in CID were too. Especially the desk sergeant. Sam himself however, was away with the fairies. And it wasn't another hallucination either.

"Earth to Dorothy?" Gene barked in the DI's ear. Sam jerked to reality beside him.

"Sorry Gene?" he asked dazedly. Gene looked in the former path of Sam's eyes.

"_Oho_." the DCI smirked. "I see." Gene had seen Sam had been gazing at Annie. The Detective Inspector flushed, caught in the act - he had to improve in subtlety. "I've seen the way you glance across the canteen, Tyler." Gene's smirk continued.

"What's going on?" Ray demanded, overhearing the guv and putting down his bitter.

"I just used my masterful eyes to catch Tyler staring at Cartwright's behind." Gene smiled. Sam went bright red, mumbling something like 'nothing below the belt'.

"OK, stretching the truth Ray, he wasn't gazing below the belt." Gene reasoned, but then the signature devillish smirk reappeared - Sam was headed for trouble. "But you _want _to get below the belt, don't you Sammy boy? Right into her knickers." he chuckled. Sam nearly fainted from embarrassment - if anyone overheard this he'd be dead. "Oh the torture of having the hots for a colleague." Gene mimicked in something resembling Sam's voice. Sam made a gesture. Ray piped in helpfully.

"Why don't we put him out of his misery if he wants to get inside her knickers?"

"You're right Raymondo. _Hey Cart_-" Gene started to yell but never got to finish because Sam punched him in the jaw and tipped his beer over the guv's head. Annie's head turned around, looking for the voice that might have called her name. As soon as her brown hair hit the light, Sam smiled. _She looks beautiful_ he thought. Gene shook his head and muttered randomly, drying himself. "Look Sam, if you keep staring, there's only one solution to this - tell her." the DCI told his DI in a rare moment of insight. Sam had thought he'd gone mad. _Gene Hunt _offering advice?

"OK." Sam said. Then a thought struck him. "Hey Nelson..." he asked, walking over.

"Sure Sam. Karaoke's still runnin' if anyone wants to sing. What's on your mind?"

"A bit of Beatles. Let me ruffle through your records." Sam replied, keeping his special plan secret - although, knowing Nelson and his insightful mind, he'd click. "Aha!" Sam exclaimed, pulling out the top five hit 'Something'. "Just the one!" he said with an almost-dreamy tone to his voice and a massive grin.

"OK everybody, here with a surprise karaoke, DI Sam Tyler. Hit us mon brav!" Nelson called, setting up 'Something'. Sam handled the mike, trying the best he could_ not _to catch the eye of the attractive WDC he had feelings for, and coughed.

"Go on boss!" Chris called out. Sam began to sing along with the opening chord.

"_Something in the way she moves, attracts me like no other lover._" he sung, forgetting memories of Maya, and pouring his heart out to Annie. He wasn't with the WDC in a romantic sense, but hey, he loved her, and that was what mattered. "_Something in the way she woos me. __I don't want to leave her now, you know I believe and how._" he continued. At that lyric, Annie's mind stirred. _I don't want to leave her now _she thought. _You know I believe and how_ she thought again, a slight guilty frown on her face.

"Sam always trusted me with his... strange experiences. He wanted me to believe him." she said to herself, catching on. But the next two lines really had her thinking.

"_Somewhere in her smile she knows, that I don't need no other lover. Something in her style that shows me._" she overheard Sam singing. Annie smiled shyly, a very faint blush adorning her cheeks. Lover? Surely Sam was... on second thought, he wasn't pulling her leg. _You know him well enough to know when he's serious, Annie_ one side of her brain said. _But Sam, liking me like THAT? Really? That's a surprise_ the other side said. _But he's good, decent and kind. And not just as a copper_ the first side fired back. The shy smile grew into a full-blown grin.

"Annie?" Phyllis queried, puzzled by her fellow female's sudden happiness.

"_I don't want to leave her now, you know I believe and how_." Sam sung heartily. Annie beamed, knowing full well now that Sam had picked this Beatles song with her in mind. "_You're asking me will my love grow, I don't know, I don't know._" Sam grinned - of course his love for Annie had grown, she tugged on his heartstrings every day. "_Stick around, and it may show, but I don't know, I don't know_." Sam was singing that part in obviousness to himself - of course it already showed.

_I guess I suppose I'm not forward enough with Annie for her to get it_ he mused in his head. In Annie's head however, things were becoming more vivid. _If he does love me, he might tell me after the song has finished. Oh, this is so confusing... then again it seems so natural to love Sam back_ she thought. It dawned on her.

"I'm in love with my DI." she whispered. "Forever and a day." she grinned.

"_Something in the way she knows, and all I have to do is think of her._" the lovestruck fool sung from the mike. Even Gene, Ray and Chris had got it now.

"The simpleton is singing the love song for Cartwright." Gene laughed sardonically.

"What does he need a song for? Why doesn't he just do the old upstairs-downstairs routine?" Ray pondered in his signature Neanderthal-like way. Chris rolled his eyes.

"I think it's nice for the boss to show a little emotion." the Detective Constable said.

"Problem is." Gene mused. "knowing Tyler, he probably show too much. We all know how he is. Even when we crack down on suspects in interview he's _considerate_." the DCI spat out the last word like it was something disgusting. Nelson chuckled mildly in the background. _What a figure to help lost souls of coppers move onto better pastures_ he thought comically.

"_Something in the things she shows me_." Sam sung with emotion, thinking of how Annie had introduced him to seventies policing with ease - she was his voice of reason when everything else seemed to be failing. "_I don't want to leave her now, you know I believe and how_." he finished heartily, looking straight at the object of his desire. Annie blushed maroon, and was the one to applaud the hardest as the song faded out. Sam bowed. Annie did a nervous giggle. He heard her and walked over.

"Annie..." he started. The WDC smiled lovingly. Sam's heartbeat quickened. "Yes, it's beating." he beamed when Annie put her hand on his heart, mirroring what she'd said when he'd done the same at one point.

"Just answer me one thing." Annie near-whispered in his ear. Sam nodded. "Was the song for me?" Another nod. "Oh _Sam!_" she exclaimed, kissing him. With a face like a beetroot, the DI grinned his head off. "I feel the same way." Annie murmured.

"I'm glad." Sam breathed. "Man you smell good." he said, smelling Annie's hair.

"Sam _Tyler!_" the WDC giggled. Suddenly their special moment was ruined.

"OI, TYLER!" Gene bellowed. Sam skipped back hand-in-hand with Annie. "Well I can see I'll have to talk to you later." Gene reasoned. Sam beamed in ecstasy.

**AN: The song 'Something' really gave me inspiration when I listened to it once, and this is what came out of that. Plus Sam and Annie are just too damn cute for their own good! I'd always wondered what a karaoke night at the pub would have been like anyway, so I took that situation into my own hands.**


End file.
